It was somewhere in Spring and Kennedy High had been closed for the holidays. Why, exactly, there were holidays at this point in time, Brooke didn’t know. It was possible that it was a remnant of some European religious holiday or simply because the teachers needed a break from their students. Whatever the reason, fact was that Brooke and Sam were in a car speeding across an almost deserted highway. They were going to spend their holiday staying with a woman Sam referred to as “Aunt Susan”. From Brooke could tell, this Susan wasn’t really Sam’s aunt, but had simply been a very good friend of Sam’s father. Apparently, Sam had kept in touch with this woman after her father’s death and she was very happy when Susan agreed with her coming over. Brooke had come along mainly because she could drive and Sam couldn't, but also because all her friends were out of town and she wasn’t looking forward to spending the entire holiday with no company other than her baby sister.

“Take this exit,” Sam said.

Brooke dutifully took the exit and down onto a significantly smaller road which soon led to a sign with a small town behind it. The sign read “Sapphoville”. Brooke frowned. That was a rather strange name for a town.

“Almost there,” Sam said, and Brooke could hear the excitement in her voice.

“Hey, Sam…” Brooke started.

“Yeah?” Sam said, looking expectantly out the window.

“This town’s got a pretty strange name, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Sap-”

“There it is!” Sam exclaimed, pointing at a house.

Brooke pulled up onto the pavement next to the garden. Sam quickly started struggling with her seatbelt, then quickly got out of the car, hurried over to the trunk and got her part of their luggage. Brooke watched her for a moment, still sitting in the driver’s seat. Sam was behaving oddly. She wasn’t normally this… exuberant. It was almost like she was behaving, well, like a child.

Which made sense, in a way. This Susan woman was very definitely part of Sam’s childhood. Brooke smiled as she got out of the car. Maybe she would see some hitherto unsuspected side of her stepsister.

By the time Brooke had collected her own luggage, Sam was already standing in front of the front door and was waiting quite impatiently for her blonde stepsister. When Brooke finally started walking in the direction of the house, Sam rang the doorbell. It didn’t take long for the door to open. Brooke assumed that the woman who had opened the door was Susan and the hug Sam gave her quickly confirmed that suspicion. Susan was a woman in her late twenties, or maybe early thirties. Her hair was completely white, except for a single black streak and she was dressed in an elegant black dress. She was smiling at Sam. The smile was friendly and genuine, but Brooke could see she hadn’t had much practise at smiling in general.

“It’s good to see you Sam.”

“Good to see you too aunt Susan,” Sam said heartfelt.

“And who might this be?” Susan asked, looking at Brooke.

“That’s Brooke, my stepsister. You know, the one I told you was coming with me.”

“Of course. Please, come in.”

Sam quickly followed Susan into the house. Brooke was a little slower. Susan seemed nice enough, but for some reason Brooke felt as if there was something not quite right about her. The blonde quickly shrugged off the feeling and followed the other two inside.

Brooke set foot into the living room and saw that it was already occupied by someone other than Sam and Susan. He was tall and dressed in black, but other than that, Brooke couldn’t really make him out.

“Grandfather, this is Sam and her stepsister Brooke,” Susan said.

The man in black looked at the two girls. For some reason, Brooke didn’t manage to get his face into focus. What she could see was that he was a little pale.

HELLO. SUSAN HAS TOLD ME MUCH ABOUT YOU, said the man. There was something wrong with his voice. Brooke heard it clearly enough, but she had the unsettling feeling that she hadn’t heard it with her ears.

“Really?” said Sam.

OH YES.

Sam hesitated. “I’m afraid she hasn’t told me a lot about you.”

Susan’s grandfather looked at her grandchild. NO, I EXPECT NOT. BUT PERHAPS IT IS FOR THE BEST.

Susan cleared her throat. “You just said you were leaving,” she said in a not so subtle fashion.

YES, I SUPPOSE I MUST BE GOING.He stood up from the couch and nodded at the teenagers. IT WAS A PLEASURE MEETING YOU.

“Same here,” said Sam.

“Err… yeah,” said Brooke, rather less heartfelt.

SUSAN.

“Grandfather.”

Susan’s grandfather walked towards the back door, looked back at Sam and Brooke and hesitated.

ERR…

Susan quickly stepped up next to him and opened the door.

THANK YOU, he said. And then he was gone.

Susan turned around. “Well now, shall I show you your rooms?”

Life in Sapphoville wasn’t particularly difficult. It was a small community were everyone knew everyone else and where everyone also liked everyone else. Everyone just went about their business and nothing exciting ever really happened. Or at least, not during the day.

And like many small towns, Sapphoville also had a rather nice square complete with fountain. Three girls were sitting at the edge of the fountain, two brunettes and a redhead. It was obvious to anyone who might see them that one of the brunettes was pretty upset and the other two were trying to console her.

“Would you please tell us what’s wrong?” the brunette who wasn’t upset asked. Her voice had a decidedly British accent.

“Nothing,” sniffed the other brunette with a more ordinary American accent.

“Dawn, we all know that isn’t true,” said the redhead. She too had a British accent, though it wasn’t nearly as stiff as the brunette’s accent.

“You’ll just laugh at me,” said Dawn.

“You know we won’t,” said the English brunette.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Dawn looked at her hands, then said, “Am I ugly?”

The brunette and the redhead looked at one another. Normally they smiled when they did this. This was one of the rare occasions where they didn’t.

“Of course not.”

“You’re very pretty.”

Dawn chuckled humourlessly. “Yeah? Then why don’t I have a girlfriend?”

Hermione Granger didn’t really like the local arcade. The music volume was always pumped up to the max and the games were frankly quite boring. But, her girlfriend and their best friend got a kick out of them, so she indulged them from time to time. That was why Hermione was quietly sitting on a chair, studying her homework and keeping half an eye on her friend and a full eye on her girlfriend’s rear. Just because she was supposed to be the mature, studious type didn’t mean she couldn’t ogle her girlfriend whenever she wanted to. The brunette heard Dawn cheering and saw the brunette raising a triumphant fist in the air. The far more sexier redhead next to her groaned in defeat. Hermione smiled. Her girlfriend was probably going to be quite upset by her loss and would probably need comforting. Yes, things were looking up.

Hermione happily returned to her studies. She didn’t manage to keep her attention on it for very long as she noticed someone entering the arcade. She had long brown hair, quite a killer body (though not as murderous as Ginny’s body, obviously) and Hermione didn’t recognise her. This meant that she was new in town. Hermione looked from the newcomer to Dawn and back again. Grinning, she closed her book and walked up to the stranger to start up some friendly conversation.

Amongst other things.

Brooke didn’t like Sapphoville. The town didn’t feel right to her. There was something strange about it that made her skin crawl. What Brooke really wanted was to go home, back to the Palace. Unfortunately, she was stuck in this place for at least a week.

Quietly fuming to herself, Brooke walked through the centre of the town, ignoring the shops that stood on each side of the street. Then, for no apparent reason, she stopped, turned around and looked at one of the stores. It was a rather old, decrepit building. The shop-window displayed nothing except a few cards with rather beautiful drawings on them. Without really knowing why, Brooke reached for the handle, opened the door and stepped inside.

The interior of the shop was dark and just as old and decrepit as the outside. Cards lined the walls, some of them beautiful, most of them horrendous.

“Can I help you?”

Brooke jumped at the sound of the voice. Behind the counter sat an old lady. She didn’t look like the kind of old lady that smiled a lot and gave biscuits to children. This was the kind of old lady who cackled and pushed little kids into stoves.

“Not really,” Brooke said. She was a little afraid, but didn’t show it.

“Not many people come to my shop nowadays,” said the old woman. “I’m Gurd, by the way. And what might your name be?”

“Brooke,” said Brooke.

“Ah, such a pretty name,” said Gurd. “Well now, come here girl.”

Brooke walked over the counter, quietly regretting every step she took. Gurd seemed to be inspecting her closely.

“And such a pretty girl as well,” the old woman said. “Well, well, well.”

“Erm… what do you sell here?” Brooke asked, desperately wanting the conversation to move away from things that were pretty about her.

“Cards, dear girl. Can’t you see?”

“Cards? That’s all, just cards?”

Gurd smiled. Brooke rather wished she hadn’t. “That’s right. Just cards. Like this one, for example.”

Gurd fished up a card from behind her counter and handed it to Brooke. It depicted a sort of wolf-man-beast. The drawing was very good. The claws looked almost real.

“Err… that’s nice,” Brooke said.

“Yes,” said Gurd. She was staring hard at Brooke.

“So, that’s all you do all day? Sell cards?”

Gurd sighed. There was a hint of disappointment in it. “Ah, such a pity.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh nothing,” the old woman said. Then she cheered up. “Then again, this town only really comes alive at night, doesn’t it?”

“It does?” said Brooke. She had the feeling that she had taken the wrong turn in this conversation. Either that, or she was riding a bicycle while the old woman was flying a jet.

“Oh yes, yes,” said Gurd. “Well, keep the card, free of charge.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now run along now. Unless you are interested in some of my other wares.”

“No,” said Brooke. “No, that’s alright. I’d best be going anyway.”

Brooke quickly legged it out of the store, not looking back at the distressing old woman.

Brooke was walking back to Susan’s house while trying not to think about the shop. This was a bit difficult, especially since she could feel the card the old woman had given her sitting in her pocket. Brooke started walking a bit faster.

“Hey, new girl!”

Brooke groaned. She wasn’t really keen on meeting more people right now. But her general politeness kicked in and she turned around. She was looking in the faces of two girls. They both had black hair, one had quite a well-toned muscular body while the other… hadn’t.

“Hello,” said Brooke.

“Saw you walking out of Gurd’s shop,” said the slim one. “Hope the old hag didn’t frighten you too much.”

“No, that’s all right,” said Brooke.

“You’re lying,” said the girl. “But then, you’re not first. I’m Jessica. This here is Laura. Who are you?”

“Brooke.”

“Brooke,” Jessica repeated. “Well Brooke, let me give you a bit of advice. Get the Hell out of here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you should go away from here before this town traps you forever.”

“What are you talking about?”

Jessica rolled her eyes. For some reason, this made Laura giggle.

“I’m talking about how you shouldn’t stay here too long. If you do, you’ll never want to leave again.”

Brooke frowned. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It does sound like that, doesn’t it?” said Laura. “But it’s true. This town is the supplier of the ultimate drug. And when you’ve tasted it even once you will never able to give it up.”

“There’re drug dealers here?”

Laura smiled. “No, I’m not talking about chemicals. I’m talking about something much more insidious.”

“She won’t believe you,” Jessica told Laura.

“Maybe,” said Brooke.

“Well then, before I go further, let me ask you something,” said Laura. “What is your opinion on True Love?”

The back door to Susan’s house slammed shut behind Brooke and the blonde was very, very grateful for this. Sapphoville was now officially creeping her out. It seemed to be filled with highly eccentric people who walked around smiling old day.

No, not people, Brooke corrected herself. Women or girls. She hadn’t seen men here yet, but she was pretty sure they were just as bad. But now she was in the relative safety of Susan’s house. Now she wouldn’t have to deal with any strange situations for the rest of the day.

Brooke entered the living room.

And had to deal with a strange situation.

After being completely shocked into silence for several moments, she cleared her throat.

Sam and the brunette girl she had been passionately making out with on the couch broke apart. They glanced at each other and blushed. Sam looked up at Brooke.

“Hello Sam.”

“Brooke.”

“Who is this?”

“This is Dawn,” said Sam. She reached over, took the girl’s hand and smiled at her. “My girlfriend.”

Brooke suddenly felt cold. Laura’s voice echoed from her short-term memory. She had thought it silly when she heard it, but now the words frightened the living daylights out of her.